Pinocchio (1940 film)
Besides being visually very good and often charming, parts of this movie scared the hell out of me as a kid-- Disney would often do that, I learned over time
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pinocchio | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Supervising Directors Ben Sharpsteen Hamilton Luske Sequence Directors William "Bill" Roberts Norman Ferguson Jack Kinney Wilfred Jackson T. Hee |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Screenplay by | Ted Sears Otto Englander Webb Smith William Cottrell Joseph Sabo Erdman Penner Aurelius Battaglia |
| Based on | The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi |
| Starring | Cliff Edwards Dickie Jones Christian Rub Mel Blanc Walter Catlett Charles Judels Evelyn Venable Frankie Darro |
| Music by | Leigh Harline Paul J. Smith |
| Studio | Walt Disney Productions |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
| Release dates |
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| Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,289,247[1] |
| Box office | $84,254,167 (inc. reissues)[2] |
The plot of the film involves an old wood-carver named Geppetto who carves a wooden puppet named Pinocchio who is brought to life by a blue fairy, who tells him he can become a real boy if he proves himself "brave, truthful, and unselfish". Thus begin the puppet's adventures to become a real boy, which involve many encounters with a host of unsavory characters. The film was adapted by Aurelius Battaglia, William Cottrell, Otto Englander, Erdman Penner, Joseph Sabo, Ted Sears, and Webb Smith from Collodi's book. The production was supervised by Ben Sharpsteen and Hamilton Luske, and the film's sequences were directed by Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, and Bill Roberts.
Initially a box office disaster to begin with, it eventually made a profit in its 1945 reissue and in time, it became the most prestigious, greatest, and critically acclaimed Disney animated feature film ever made, and as one of the greatest animated films of all time.[3] Pinocchio became the first animated motion picture to win a competitive Academy Award; winning two for Best Music, Original Score and for Best Music, Original Song for "When You Wish upon a Star".
Contents
Plot
After singing the film's signature song "When You Wish Upon A Star", Jiminy Cricket explains that he is going to tell a story of a wish coming true. His story begins in the Tuscany workshop of a woodworker named Geppetto. Jiminy watches as Geppetto finishes work on a wooden marionette whom he names Pinocchio. Before falling asleep, Geppetto makes a wish on a star that Pinocchio could be a real boy. During the night, the star, in the form of a Blue Fairy, visits the workshop to grant Geppetto's wish. She makes Pinocchio come alive, while remaining still a puppet. The fairy tells Pinocchio that if he wants to become a real boy of blood and flesh he must prove himself to be brave, truthful and unselfish and able to tell right from wrong by listening to his conscience. Pinocchio does not understand what a conscience is, and Jiminy appears to explain it to him. The Blue Fairy asks if Jiminy would serve as Pinocchio's conscience, a task he accepts.Geppetto discovers that his wish has come true, and is filled with joy. The next day, he sends Pinocchio on his first day of school. However, Pinocchio is led astray by Honest John the Fox and Gideon the Cat – who convince him to join Stromboli's puppet show over Jiminy's protests. Pinocchio becomes Stromboli's star attraction as a marionette who can sing and dance with no strings while performing with Dutch girls, French can-can girls, and Russian Cossacks. But when Pinocchio wants to go home for the night, Stromboli becomes angry and locks him in a birdcage and threatens him to perform around the world and warns him that when he grows too old, he will chop him into firewood. Jiminy arrives to see Pinocchio and is unable to free him. However, the Blue Fairy then appears. When she asks Pinocchio why he disobeyed Geppetto, despite Jiminy's urgings, Pinocchio tells an overblown story trying to hide his shame, and with each lie his nose grows ever longer. The Blue Fairy explains that a lie will keep growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on his face. Pinocchio vows to be good from now on and the Blue Fairy changes his nose back to its original form and sets him free, warning that this will be the last time she helps him as Pinocchio and Jiminy escape.
Meanwhile, across town, Honest John and Gideon get acquainted with a Coachman who promises to pay them big money if they find him stupid little boys he takes to Pleasure Island. They convince Pinocchio that he is sick, and the only cure is to go to there as a vacation. There, he befriends Lampwick, a misbehaved and disillusioned boy. With no rules or authority to stop them, Pinocchio and the other boys soon enjoy gambling, smoking, getting drunk and vandalizing, much to Jiminy's dismay. Jiminy becomes angry when he discovers that Pinocchio is friends with Lampwick and storms off. Later, Jiminy discovers the island harbours a terrible curse which the Coachman influenced the boys to make jackasses of themselves by becoming real donkeys, who are sold to work in the salt mines and circuses. Jiminy runs back to warn Pinocchio. Lampwick is transformed into a terrified donkey, but Pinocchio manages to escape with only a donkey's ears and tail.
Upon returning home, Pinocchio and Jiminy find the workshop empty and learn (from a letter by the Blue Fairy) that Geppetto, while venturing out to sea to look for Pinocchio, had been swallowed, along with his cat Figaro, and goldfish Cleo, by a giant whale named Monstro, and are now living in his belly. Determined to rescue his father, Pinocchio jumps into the bottom of the ocean, with Jiminy accompanying him. Pinocchio is soon swallowed by Monstro, where he is reunited with Geppetto. Pinocchio devises an escape plan by burning wood in order to make Monstro sneeze. The plan works, but the enraged whale gives chase and smashes their raft. Pinocchio refuses to abandon Geppetto and pulls him to safety in a cave under a cliff before Monstro rams into it. They are all washed up on a beach, but Pinocchio is dead. Back at home, the group mourn for him. The Blue Fairy, however, decides that Pinocchio has proven himself, and he is reborn as a real human boy, much to the joy of his family. When Jiminy steps outside to thank the Fairy, she gives him a gold badge that certifies him as an official conscience, to his delight.
Cast
- Dickie Jones as Pinocchio, a wooden puppet carved by Geppetto and turned into a living puppet by the Blue Fairy
- Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket, a cheerful and wise cricket who acts as Pinocchio's "conscience" and the partial narrator of the story
- Christian Rub as Mister Geppetto, a kind and elderly woodcarver who creates Pinocchio and wishes for him to become a real boy
- Walter Catlett as John Worthington Foulfellow, also known as Honest John, a sly anthropomorphic red fox and known criminal who tricks Pinocchio twice in the film
- Gideon, Honest John's mute and crafty anthropomorphic feline accomplice. He was originally intended to be voiced by Mel Blanc of Looney Tunes fame (in his only work for Disney until Who Framed Roger Rabbit), but the filmmakers deleted his dialogue in favor of a mute performance (e.g. Harpo Marx) just like Dopey of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[4] However, Gideon's hiccups were provided by Blanc.[4]
- Charles Judels as Stromboli, a large, sinister, Italian bearded puppet-maker who forces Pinocchio to perform onstage in order to make money. He speaks in an Italian accent and curses in Italian when he gets angry, though he is identified as a gypsy. He is the only villain of the film to be part of the official Disney Villains line-up. Judels also voices the devious and sadistic Coachman, owner and operator of Pleasure Island, who enjoys turning unruly boys into donkeys.
- Evelyn Venable as The Blue Fairy, who brings Pinocchio to life and turns him into a real boy at the end
- Frankie Darro as Lampwick, a naughty boy that Pinocchio befriends on his way to Pleasure Island; he is turned into a donkey on Pleasure Island
- Thurl Ravenscroft as Monstro, the sperm whale that swallows Geppetto, Figaro, and Cleo during their search for Pinocchio. Pinocchio is later swallowed when Monstro is eating, and he and Geppetto reunite.
Production
Development
In September 1937, during the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, animator Norman Ferguson brought a translated version of Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel, The Adventures of Pinocchio to the attention of Walt Disney. After reading the book "Walt was busting his guts with enthusiasm" as Ferguson later recalled.[5] Pinocchio was intended to be the studio's third film, after Bambi. However due to difficulties with Bambi (adapting the story and animating the animals realistically), it was put on hold and Pinocchio was moved ahead in production.[6]Writing
Unlike Snow White, which was a short story that the writers could expand and experiment with, Pinocchio was based on a novel with a very fixed story. Therefore the story went through very drastic changes before reaching its final incarnation.[4][6] In the original novel, Pinocchio is a cold, rude, ungrateful, inhuman creature that often repels sympathy and only learns his lessons by means of brutal torture.[6] The writers decided to modernize the character and depict him as a Charlie McCarthy-esque wise guy, but equally as rambunctious as the puppet in the book.[4] Animation began in January 1938 while the story was still being developed.[6] Early scenes animated by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston show that Pinocchio's design was exactly like that of a real wooden puppet with a long pointed nose, a peaked cap and bare wooden hands.[6] Walt Disney, however, was not pleased with the work that was being done on the film. He felt that no one could really sympathize with such a character and called for an immediate halt in production.[4][6] Fred Moore redesigned the character slightly to make him more appealing but the design still retained a wooden feel.[6] Young and upcoming animator Milt Kahl felt that Thomas, Johnston and Moore were "rather obsessed with the idea of this boy being a wooden puppet" and felt that they should "forget that he was a puppet and get a cute little boy; you can always draw the wooden joints and make him a wooden puppet afterwards."[6] Hamilton Luske suggested to Kahl that he should demonstrate his beliefs by animating a test sequence.[6] Kahl showed Disney a test scene in which Pinocchio is underwater looking for his father.[6] From this scene Kahl re-envisioned the character by making him look more like a real boy, with a child's Tyrolean hat and standard cartoon character four-fingered (or three and a thumb) hands with Mickey Mouse-type gloves on them. The only parts of Pinocchio that still looked more or less like a puppet were his arms, legs and his little button wooden nose. Disney embraced Kahl's scene and immediately urged the writers to evolve Pinocchio into a more innocent, naïve, somewhat coy personality that reflected Kahl's design.[4]However, Disney found that the new Pinocchio was too helpless and was far too often led astray by deceiving characters. Therefore, in the summer of 1938 Disney and his story team established the character of the cricket.[6] Originally the cricket was only a minor character that Pinocchio killed by squashing him with a mallet and that later returned as a ghost.[4] Disney dubbed the cricket Jiminy, and made him into a character that would try to guide Pinocchio into the right decisions. Once the character was expanded, he was depicted as a realistic cricket with toothed legs and waving antennae, but Disney wanted something more likable.[6] Ward Kimball had spent several months animating a "Soup Eating Sequence" in Snow White, which was cut from the film due to pacing reasons. Kimball was about to quit until Disney rewarded him for his work by promoting him to the supervising animator of Jiminy Cricket.[4] Kimball conjured up the design for Jiminy Cricket, whom he described as a little man with an egg head and no ears.[6] "The only thing that makes him a cricket is because we call him one," Kimball later joked.[7]
Casting
Due to the huge success of Snow White, Walt Disney wanted more famous voices for Pinocchio, which marked the first time an animated film had used celebrities as voice actors.[5] He cast popular singer Cliff Edwards, also known as "Ukelele Ike," as Jiminy Cricket. Edwards was a popular entertainer who had made the first million-selling record. Disney rejected the idea of having an adult play Pinocchio and insisted that the character be voiced by a real child.[4] He cast child actor Dickie Jones, who had previously been in Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He also cast Frankie Darro as Lampwick, Walter Catlett as Foulfellow the Fox, Evelyn Venable as the Blue Fairy, Charles Judels as both the villainous Stromboli and the Coachman, and Christian Rub as Geppetto, whose design was even a caricature of Rub.[4]Another voice actor recruited was Mel Blanc, most famous for voicing many of the characters in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons from Warner Bros.. Blanc was hired to perform the voice of Gideon the Cat. However, it was eventually decided that Gideon would be mute, so all of Blanc's recorded dialogue was subsequently deleted except for a solitary hiccup, which was heard three times in the finished film.[4]
Animation
Animation began in September 1938.[6] During the production of the film, the character model department was headed by Joe Grant,[4] whose department was responsible for the building of three-dimensional clay models of the characters in the film, known as maquettes. These models were then given to the staff to observe how a character should be drawn from any given angle desired by the artists.[4] The model makers also built working models of Geppetto's cuckoo clocks, as well as Stromboli's gypsy wagon and the Coachman's carriage. However, owing to the difficulty animating a realistic moving vehicle, the artists filmed the carriage maquettes on a miniature set using stop motion animation. Then each frame of the animation was transferred onto animation cels using an early version on a Xerox. The cels were then painted on the back and overlaid on top of background images with the cels of the characters to create the completed shot on the rostrum camera.[4][8] Like Snow White, live-action footage for Pinocchio was shot with the actors playing the scenes in pantomime, supervised by Hamilton Luske.[4][8] Rather than tracing, which would result in stiff unnatural movement, the animators used the footage as a guide for animation by studying human movement and then incorporating some poses into the animation (though slightly exaggerated).[4]Pinocchio was a groundbreaking achievement in effects animation. In contrast to the character animators who concentrate on the acting of the characters, effects animators create everything that moves other than the characters. This includes vehicles, machinery and natural effects such as rain, lightning, snow, smoke, shadows and water, as well as the fantasy or science-fiction type effects like Fairy Dust.[4] The influential abstract animator Oskar Fischinger, who mainly worked on Fantasia contributed to the effects animation of the Blue Fairy's wand.[9] Effects animator Sandy Strother kept a diary about his year-long animation of the water effects, which included splashes, ripples, bubbles, waves and the illusion of being underwater. To help give depth to the ocean, the animators put more detail into the waves on the water surface in the foreground, and put in less detail as the surface moved further back. After the animation was traced onto cels, the animators would trace it once more with blue and black pencil leads to give the waves a sculptured look.[4] To save time and money, the splashes were kept impressionistic. These techniques enabled Pinocchio to be one of the first animated films to have highly realistic effects animation. Ollie Johnston remarked "I think that's one of the finest things the studio's ever done, as Frank [Thomas] said, 'The water looks so real a person can drown in it, and they do.'"[4]
Reception
Pinocchio went into release accompanied by generally positive reviews. Jiminy Cricket's song, "When You Wish Upon A Star", became a major hit and is still identified with the film, and later as the theme song of The Walt Disney Company itself.[10] The film won the Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, the first Disney film to win either.[10]Financially however, Pinocchio was not initially a success.[1] The box office returns from the film's initial release were both below Snow White's unprecedented success and below studio expectations.[1][11] Of the film's $2.289 million negative cost - twice the cost of Snow White- Disney only recouped $1 million by late 1940, with studio reports of the film's final original box office take varying between $1.4 million and $1.9 million.[1] This was primarily due to the fact that World War II and its aftermath had cut off the European and Asian markets overseas, and hindered the international success of Pinocchio and other Disney releases during the early and mid-1940s.[1] Joe Grant recalled Walt Disney being "very, very depressed" about Pinocchio's initial returns at the box office.[11] RKO recorded a loss of $94,000 for the film.[12]
Despite its initial struggles at the box office, a series of reissues in the years after World War II proved more successful, and allowed the film to turn a profit. By 1973, the film had earned $13 million from the initial 1940 release and four reissues;[13] further reissues in subsequent years have brought Pinocchio's lifetime gross to $84,254,167 at the box office.[14]
In 1994, Pinocchio was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Filmmaker Terry Gilliam selected it as one of the ten best animated films of all time in a 2001 article written for The Guardian [15] and in 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best films of the last 80 years. Many film historians consider this to be the film that most closely approaches technical perfection of all the Disney animated features.[16] Film critic Leonard Maltin stated that "with Pinocchio, Disney reached not only the height of his powers, but the apex of what many critics consider to be the realm of the animated cartoon."[17]
In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Pinocchio was acknowledged as the second best film in the animation genre, after Snow White.[18] In June 2011, Time named it the best animated movie of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films".[19]
On Rotten Tomatoes, a website which aggregates film reviews, the film has the website's highest rating of 100%, meaning every single one of the 39 reviews of the film, from contemporaneous reviews to modern re-appraisals, on the site are positive. The general consensus of the film on the site is "Ambitious, adventurous, and sometimes frightening, Pinocchio arguably represents the pinnacle of Disney's collected works - it's beautifully crafted and emotionally resonant."[3]
Awards and honors
American Film Institute recognition- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - Nominated[20]
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills - Nominated[21]
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs:
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
- "A lie keeps growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on your face." - Nominated[24]
- AFI's Greatest Movie Musicals - Nominated[25]
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers - #38[26]
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - Nominated[27]
- AFI's 10 Top 10 - #2 Animated film[28]
Reissues
With the re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1944 came the tradition of re-releasing Disney films every seven to ten years.[29] Pinocchio was theatrically re-released in 1945, 1954, 1962, 1971, 1978, 1984, and 1992.[30] RKO handled the first two reissues in 1945 and 1954, while Disney itself reissued the film from 1962 on through its Buena Vista Distribution division.[30] The 1992 re-issue was digitally restored by cleaning and removing scratches from the original negatives one frame at a time, eliminating soundtrack distortions, and revitalizing the color.[31]The more comprehensive digital restoration that was done for the 1992 re-issue was released on VHS in 1993, followed by its fourth VHS release and first release on Disney DVD in 1999.[32] The film was not included in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection line, although early printings of the 1999 VHS did use the Masterpiece Collection logo.[32] The second Disney DVD release and final issue in the VHS format (the first in the Walt Disney Gold Classics Collection VHS/DVD line) premiered the following year in 2000.[33] The third DVD release and first Blu-ray Disc release (the second Blu-ray in the Walt Disney Platinum Editions series) was released on March 10, 2009.[34] Like the 2008 Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray release, the Pinocchio Blu-ray package featured a new restoration by Lowry Digital in a two-disc Blu-ray set, with a bonus DVD version of the film also included.[35] This set returned to the Disney Vault on April 30, 2011.[36]
Soundtrack
Main article: Pinocchio (soundtrack)
The songs in Pinocchio were composed by Leigh Harline and Lyrics by Ned Washington. Leigh Harline and Paul J. Smith composed the incidental music score.[37] The soundtrack was first released on February 9, 1940.[37] The soundtrack won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.[10]Legacy
In 1987, Filmation released a "thin-veiled" animated sequel to Pinocchio, entitled Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night. Set a year after Pinocchio became a real boy, the movie received mainly negative reviews from critics and was a commercial failure. Disney sued Filmation for copyright infringement, but Filmation won the lawsuit on the grounds that Collodi's work is in the public domain.[38]In the mid-2000s, DisneyToon Studios began development on a sequel to Pinocchio. Robert Reece co-wrote the film's screenplay, which saw Pinocchio on a "strange journey" for the sake of something dear to him. "It's a story that leads Pinocchio to question why life appears unfair sometimes,” said Reece.[39] John Lasseter cancelled Pinocchio II soon after being named Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios in 2006.[40]
Many of Pinocchio's characters are meetable characters at Disney parks.[41] Pinocchio's Daring Journey is a popular ride at the original Disneyland,[42] Tokyo Disneyland,[43] and Disneyland Park in Paris.[44] Pinocchio Village Haus is a quick service restaurant at Walt Disney World that serves pizza and macaroni and cheese.[45] There are similar quick-service restaurants at the Disneyland parks in Anaheim and Paris as well, with almost identical names.[45]
Disney on Ice starring Pinocchio, toured internationally from 1987 to 1992.[46] A shorter version of the story is also presented in the current Disney on Ice production "One Hundred Years Of Magic".[46]
Aside from the Sega Mega Drive (Or Genesis in North America), Game Boy, and Super Nintendo games based on the animated film, Geppetto and Pinocchio also appear as characters in the game Kingdom Hearts.[47] The inside of Monstro is also featured as one of the worlds.[48] Jiminy Cricket appears as well, acting as a recorder, keeping a journal of the game's progress in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and, Kingdom Hearts II.[48] Pinocchio's home world was slated to appear in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, but was omitted due to time restrictions, although talk-sprites of Pinocchio, Geppetto, Honest John and Gideon have been revealed.[49] As compensation, this world appears in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, under the name "Prankster's Paradise", with Dream world versions of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Cleo, Monstro and the Blue Fairy appearing.[50]
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